Stainless steel crampons

It is a dead horse... (more on stainless crampons) but do you really want to be riding it?

OK, this got my attention. In less than 10 days counting back from today I got reports of 3 pairs of bent, broken or cracked Black Diamond Stainless crampons.

Call me cynical but it was exactly this time last year that the same thing happened...actually within days of each other one year apart. Over a dozen cracked or broken pairs of Black Diamond stainless crampons popped up over the last year. But 3 in a row, in mid Feb 2012! Again?!

edit for an update: Same scenario again in Feb. of 2013. More reported BD stainless failures.
It is mid season for ice climbing world wide. Check your crampons. If you are on stainless, check them twice!


This one bent while climbing ice. It isn't trick photography. The front point simply straightened out under body weight,


"The one front point flattened out when he was 5' off the deck. He fell to snow."


cracked using a rigid soled boot




Crack here is circled in red.

And these are crampons I really liked initially, BD's Sabertooth and Serac. Crampons I climbed and soloed in. And the most recent faulty crampons are all the reinforced 2nd gen. versions.

I could care less about Black Diamond. They made it clear last winter that they have little concern about your safety while using this product. The sales samples and prototypes excuses are really long in tooth a full year later. These cracks and failures are all in the same place. Make damn sure you inspect yours closely prior to EVERY use. The front point collapsing under body weight is a new one for me.

Check your gear, be attentive and pay ATTENTION if you are still climbing in any of the BD stainless horizontal front point crampons. When these do come apart, make no mistake, it is a catastrophic failure. Falling off an ice climb because of gear failure can very easily get you dead.

So one more time...

Since Black Diamond won't tell you this, I will.

You all be careful out there on Black Diamond stainless 'pons! Friends don't let their friends climb on stainless horizontals.

More here if you want the enterainment:

http://rafalandronowski.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/broke-my-crampons/
http://www.gravsports-ice.com/icethreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8972&page=all
http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2011/02/soft-shoe-shuffle.html
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1004766/Broke_my_crampons
http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2011/08/crampon-durability-stainless-or.html